I published 🔗 this post back in July last year … after months of delay and noodling and questioning, I finally released it - and as with so many of my posts that I often wonder why I bother .. crickets.
From that piece - if you’ll forgive me for quoting myself …
Sadly the Internet has been weaponized and far from creating a place to be educated about the differences of people and countries and life - we are being forced into submission. It’s a place where ignorance is not so much celebrated as ignored - and ignored because on the whole it isn’t recognized, and if you do anything counter to the noise - expect to be piled on because 🔗 you are either with us, or against us.
It has only got worse.
Since the 6th, I have been thinking a lot about ‘whither next’ … and then, a couple of days ago I became aware of a debacle in this little corner of the internet we call Micro.Blog. Not going to get into it here - if you are reading this - you almost certainly know what it’s about., but were I to reduce the whole thing to a single word it’s called BULLYING.
… and as far as I am concerned … bullies can fuck off.
Here’s the problem - any semblance of being able to have your opinion is rapidly disappearing - if not gone already. That used to be ‘across the aisle’, now it’s wormed its way into every corner of every room. And this is an ‘all sides’ problem - witness the Micro.Blog ‘contretemps’ referred to earlier. Again - you are either with us, or against us - and that means - all of these concepts are being expunged form our discourse;
Ambiguity
Ambivalence
Balance
Complexity
Context
Depth
Duality
Finesse
Gray area
Harmony
Nuance
Paradox
Perspective
Reflection
Relativity
Sensitivity
Spectrum
Subtlety
Tone
🔗 A simple, non viral case in point. - the link jumps to a short thread on Substack where I dropped a throw away comment to a comment from Ken Klippenstein and within minutes I got a reply clarifying my tongue in cheek question and what was meant by the executive order. I have learnt my lesson - I need to punctate any and all comments with a smiley emoji … ‘all’ because I am well aware that I am overly glib and sarcastic in most of my online comments.
To save the click through, I also quote this - from ChatGPT ….
facetiousness seems to be waning touches on broader shifts in communication patterns. The rise of digital communication has led to a decline in face-to-face interactions, which traditionally allowed for the nuanced delivery and reception of facetious remarks. Without the benefit of vocal tone, facial expressions, and body language, the subtleties of facetiousness can be lost or misinterpreted in text-based mediums. Moreover, the immediacy and brevity of digital exchanges often prioritize efficiency over the layered wit that facetiousness entails. As a result, such forms of humor may not translate well in online environments, leading to their diminished use. This shift underscores the complex relationship between evolving communication technologies and the ways we express and perceive humor.
And then just this morning, this popped up in my feeds from Om - posted 18 months or so ago ….
You can read the whole post ‘What’s The Truth?’ here.
Not holding back this time. Serendipity has spoken.